Reverse heart disease with a common vitamin, researchers report

You hear a lot about killer cancer and deadly diabetes. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing because those diseases can put you six feet under WAY before your time. But for some reason you don’t hear nearly as much about equally as dangerous heart disease.

I have no idea why that is. But what I do know it that it’s a crying shame for the 51 million folks who are fighting this dreadful disease and their loved ones. They need all the help they can get.

Because heart disease might not always be a death sentence, but uncontrolled it sure as heck will leave you with at least one foot in the grave. The frightening reality is, 50 percent of people who receive a heart disease diagnosis are dead within just five short years.

That’s why I was so pleased to run across some new research that’s poised to turn a whole lot of heart patients lives around—a natural way to reverse heart disease.

Reverse heart disease with vitamin D3

It turns out a simple, widely available (heck, you can even get it for FREE) vitamin can literally reverse some of the terrible damage that heart disease leaves behind.

A groundbreaking new study has revealed that when vitamin D3 went toe-to-toe with a placebo in heart disease patients it handily beat the sugar pill. The vitamin literally improved heart function in users, according to the study presented at the American College of Cardiology 65th Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Chicago, Illinois.

That, of course, is a HUGE deal because in heart failure your heart becomes less and less efficient at pumping blood. Eventually this chronic failure to effectively circulate your blood can end up killing you.

Doctors keep track of how well you heart is doing its job by performing an ejection fraction test using an echocardiogram. In healthy folks an ejection fraction typically runs somewhere between 55 a 70 por ciento. But drop below 40 and you’re likely in heart failure.

30% improvement in heart failure with D!

Folks in the study presented in Chicago had a shockingly low 26 percent ejection fraction on average at the start of the study. But just one year later the lucky group who got the D3 showed a nearly miraculous 30 percent improvement!

The vitamin D3 users jumped from an average of 26 percent to a 34 percent ejection fraction. According to researchers that means two things…

A SIGNIFICANT improvement in heart function

A partial reversal of heart failure

Consulting cardiologist Dr. Witte called the findings “a significant breakthrough” saying, “It is the first evidence that vitamin D-3 can improve heart function of people with heart muscle weakness – known as heart failure. These findings could make a significant difference to the care of heart failure patients.”

Higher D linked to lower heart disease risk

We know from past research that higher levels of vitamin D are linked to a lower risk of heart disease. In one Harvard study folks with low D has twice the risk of having a heart attack. And in a Utah based study people with lower vitamin D were found to be more likely to have heart disease.

If you want to understand how vitamin D works this fun little animation is a great place to start…

Experts believe that the vitamin may lower your risk of heart disease and your risk of dying by reducing…

Inflammation

Thickness of arterial walls

Your risk of metabolic diseases such as high blood pressure

Your risk of respiratory infections

Your risk of artery hardening

Not bad for a vitamin you can literally get for free when you step out into the sunshine to get your body to produce it. For most folks spending 20 or so minutes in the sun with your head and arms exposed can net you around 1000 IUs of vitamin D3.

However time of year, your location, weather, altitude, and even your skin tone and what surface you’re standing or sitting on can all change how much vitamin D your body ends up producing.

And when you consider that the folks in the study were getting 4000 IU a day it seems like taking a vitamin D3 supplement is the most practical way to assure you’re getting enough of this vital vitamin to help turn your own heart disease around.

If you’re at risk for heart disease, or already suffering from heart disease, talk with your doctor about supplementing with vitamin D3 to reverse heart disease.

Written in memory of medicine's most popular myth-buster, Dr. William Campbell Douglass II the "Dosis diaria" is a FREE daily e-mail service designed to deliver health news and insights directly to your inbox.

In the "Dosis diaria" you get Harrison’s no holds barred straight scoop about health, medicine and politics. In it he exposes junk medicine, flawed science, big-government waste and fraud — providing a continuous supply of urgent and timely health information.